The study suggested that placebos can work even if the patient knows the pill is a phony.

Many bloggers disagreed about the interpretation of these results. And we completely support people’s decisions to debate research findings in the blogosphere, provided they do so in a civil and professional manner. So in the spirit of open scientific discussion, we’ve decided to call this month’s winner a tie between PalMD at The White Coat Underground and Steve Silberman at Neurotribes.

As always, the bloggers and all of the study authors will receive a complimentary PLoS t-shirt for their outstanding work.